Forum rules
There are no such things as "stupid" questions. However if you think your question is a bit stupid, then this is the right place for you to post it. Please stick to easy to-the-point questions that you feel people can answer fast. For long and complicated questions prefer the other forums within the support section.
Before you post please read how to get help

I am somewhat new to Linux and to Mint. I am using the Debian based Linux, which I think is called Betsy. I have used Windows for many years and I have some basic questions about Linux Mint:

1) Why is it that when I save web pages to my hard drive and then copy or move the files the folder does not automatically go with the main file? This is a real burden if I am copying many save web pages at a time, which I sometimes do. I need to not only copy the main files but then I need to go and find each associated folder and copy that as well. Is there a way to change this so that it is like with Windows where you just copy the main file and the folder automatically comes with it?

2) Why is it that when I delete things they do not seem to accumulate in the trash? If things go into the trash it is good because one can then retrieve them if one has wrongly deleted a file or if one changes one's mind about deleting a file. Can I make this process like Windows so that the deleted items accumulate in the trash?

3) WHAT IS THE LiNUX EQUIVALENT OF CTRL + ALT + DELETE IN WINDOWS??? It is very frustrating when the computer freezes and I don't know what I can do about it (other than forcing a shut down, which is not a good thing to do).

4) Is there a way for me to run Windows 7 INSIDE of Linux Mint? Is there a free program that will let me do this? If so how do I do this? It would be very nice to have everything in one overall operating system, instead of the dual boot method I am now using.

5) I had trouble installing Wine properly and now it won't uninstall properly either. The progress bar gets stuck at 24%. Any ideas on this?

6) Is there no free version of Virtual Box?

I have other questions too but the answers to these would be a nice start.

(Note: I will be out of town and offline tomorrow and the next day so if anyone has questions I won't be able to answer for a couple of days.)

1) My guess would be that this is a function of what format the browser saves pages in. Are you using the same browser in both OSes?

2) Don't have Betsy running on this computer, but on Mint 18.1 MATE, if you right click a file in the file manager, you have the option to either delete it or move to trash. Not so on Betsy? There might be a setting for this, also.

3) Don't know. Never had any need for it.

4) Yes, you can do that with VirtualBox.

5) No idea.

6) Yes, there is a free version of VirtualBox. You may be able to install it from the repositories with Software Manager or Synaptic. I always download it from their website. I wasn't aware that there was a version of VirtualBox that you have to pay for.

Others will probably drop in with answers to your other questions. Or to provide better answers than I have.

Well, I can answer 3): <ctrl><alt><backspace> should drop you out of "X" into command-line interface, from which you should be able to "restart", "poweroff", or "startx" again. This should be a very rare occurrence, if not you should investigate why it's happening, could be your borked WINE install?

Also, you might see if your browser can save web pages as a single file; I used this trick back before Windows copied all the associated folders with the main file. I also often copy the part(s) of a web page I want to save and paste into a .doc or .rtf file in LibreOffice. Or even into a .pdf. I don't remember the last time I saved an entire web page.

Oh yes, and (at least in LMDE2 with Mate desktop and Caja file manager) you can right-click a file and "move to trash" rather than "delete" it.

#1: You might try the Firefox extension UnMHT. All gets stored into a single file.

#2: The trash gets only used by the GUI (= your file manager), not from the terminal.

#3: If the computer hangs, you can try those steps:
a) Restart Cinnamon (provided, that you use that desktop; you missed to give this info) by pressing ctrl-alt-esc
b) Try to restart the xserver by pressing ctrl-alt-backspace
c) Go to a virtual console by pressing ctrl-alt-F1, log in and enter sudo service mdm restart
d) If all of a) to c) fails press and hold alt-print, than enter one by one r e i s u b; the machine will reboot without the risk of damaging the file system.

#4: As jimallyn already wrote you can use VirtualBox. VirtualBox is free, but you need a not more used license of your Windows.

#6: VirtualBox is free and open source software. The proprietary parts are in the extension pack (free to use, but not open source).

Ok. So I posted a bunch of questions about using Linux Mint Betsy. That was three months ago. Unfortunately, I was inundated with certain legal issues and therefore other things, including my discussion with this thread, got put on the back burner. I am back now.

In response to Jimallyn:

Regarding the issue of not being able to put files in the trash when I delete them, you are right in that I can right-click and the move to trash option is then available. So that problem is resolved.

You also said that I can use VirtualBox to install Windows 7 inside of Betsy and also that it is free. Ok. Good. Thanks for that info.

In response to Kevin:

Thanks for your response.

You said that if the system freezes in Betsy I could type Ctrl + Alt + Backspace and then I could type “restart” or “poweroff” or “startx.” I tested this (when the computer was NOT stuck). Typing Ctrl + Alt + Backspace caused the screen to go black, followed by some text saying something about login info, I think, but then in just 1-2 seconds, before I get a chance to respond, it goes to the screen where I must type in my password to login. I then type in the password and it just goes back to the desktop. So I don’t know if this would help me if it got stuck or not. (I now have a new installation of Betsy and it has not been freezing.) I also opened a terminal (since I thought that maybe you were implying that typing Ctrl + Alt + Backspace would do that). And then I typed “restart” and it said that the program was not installed. I then typed “poweroff” and it said that I needed to be a superuser to do that. I then typed “startx” and there was some other error message. So the bottom line on this issue is I wasn’t able to test and confirm that Ctrl + Alt + Backspace would help me if the computer freezes in Betsy in the future. But since the problem seems much less prevalent now maybe I don’t need to worry about that at this time.

Regarding the issue of copying html files and needing to separately copy the associated folders, I installed an add-on as Cosmo suggested which lets Firefox save files as a single file. But while that may solve the problem for future files I have about 2 terabytes of data stored on hard drives and much of that is html files. The idea that I can only laboriously copy or move those files when I use Betsy while Windows 7 lets me do it quite a bit more easily reflects negatively on Betsy, as far as I can tell.

In response to Cosmo:

Thank you for your response.

I tried the extension you suggested for Firefox for saving html files as a single file and it works well. I am glad to have that option now. However, as I discussed above in response to Kevin, I have some 2 terabytes of data on my external hard drive (and much of that is html files) and although saving html files as single files will help in the future, I still will have difficulty in manipulating (copying or moving) html files that I have already saved. It seems very conspicuous and problematic that the makers of Betsy could overlook such a basic need for computer users and leave this issue unresolved.

You also provided instructions in case my computer hangs while I am using Betsy. I have not tested that yet but I am glad to have your instructions on that. (But as I noted above, I have a new installation of Betsy and my computer is not freezing up anymore, so I may not need to worry about this right now.)

Regarding your comments about VirtualBox, I am glad to learn from you that the main parts of VirtualBox are free and that it is just some additional parts, the proprietary parts, that are not free. I think that clarifies conflicting information I previously saw.

explodingbee wrote:
Regarding your comments about VirtualBox, I am glad to learn from you that the main parts of VirtualBox are free and that it is just some additional parts, the proprietary parts, that are not free. I think that clarifies conflicting information I previously saw.

Best regards to all of you,

Vincent

I believe you may have mis-understood cosmo.

Some background. In the Linux world, there are two "versions" or definitions of "free":

Free as in "free beer" - no financial payment expected, no registration fee. The software is there to download and use. Also known as "gratis".

Free as in "free speech" - The source code is freely (as in gratis) available for download. Anyone and everyone is welcome to modify the source to meet their needs with the only expectation that any improvements be returned to the community for review and, possibly, inclusion in the next released version. Also known as "libre".

The main portions of the virtualbox are free in both sense of the word.
The extension pack is gratis, but not open source so it does not meet the criteria for libre.

srq2625 wrote:
Some background. In the Linux world, there are two "versions" or definitions of "free":

Free as in "free beer" - no financial payment expected, no registration fee. The software is there to download and use. Also known as "gratis".

Free as in "free speech" - The source code is freely (as in gratis) available for download. Anyone and everyone is welcome to modify the source to meet their needs with the only expectation that any improvements be returned to the community for review and, possibly, inclusion in the next released version. Also known as "libre".

The main portions of the virtualbox are free in both sense of the word.
The extension pack is gratis, but not open source so it does not meet the criteria for libre.

I personally find the "free beer" and "free speech" terms to be confusing. I much prefer:

- Free as in gratis - i.e. the OS costs nothing.
- Free as in freedom - i.e. people have the ability to copy, modify and distribute the OS.

"Free as in free beer" in itself makes no sense. I understand that it would be cool if it were free - but it's an unclear and frivolous way of describing something. It's far clearer to say "free as in gratis".

As a new user having a bunch of questions is all right.
Asking them is all right, too.
Just putting them all in a single thread is not a too smart idea.
As can be told from this thread as well, things start to get confusing pretty soon:
It is pretty hard to follow up on who replied what to which question.
Next people start commenting / answering other users' posts, not your questions, making things even more confusing.

So in future, split different topics into separate threads. It may look like more work in the beginning, but in the end it will pay off.

1) Why is it that when I save web pages to my hard drive and then copy or move the files the folder does not automatically go with the main file? This is a real burden if I am copying many save web pages at a time, which I sometimes do. I need to not only copy the main files but then I need to go and find each associated folder and copy that as well. Is there a way to change this so that it is like with Windows where you just copy the main file and the folder automatically comes with it?

Treating an html file and the accompanying subfolder as one unit - provided the subfolder is named like the html file in a particular way - is a Windows Explorer specific functionality.
You can switch this functionality off and on in the Explorer options.
If the functionality is switched on, Explorer will copy / move / delete the subfolder together with the htlm file.

To the best of my knowledge, none of the existing Linux file-managers offers a comparable functionality.

2) Why is it that when I delete things they do not seem to accumulate in the trash?

Like on the Windows commandline, too (cmd.exe), deleting inside a terminal window will always delete the specified objects finally and never move them to the trashbin.
The default graphical file-managers like Nemo, Caja, Thunar, Dolphin, however, will delete to the trashbin by default.
Difference to Windows is:
Usually deleting to trash is named "Move to trash".
"Delete" is really deleting, bypassing the trashbin.
All file-managers will offer a way of deleting bypassing the trashbin.
On some file-managers this "delete bypassing the trashbin" has to be enabled, on others it may be enabled by default.

Some other file-managers may not support deleting to the trashbin at all.

Some things are similar to Windows, but not quite the same. You will get used to it.

Well, the answer depends on the desktop environment which you use, Cinnamon, Mate, xfce, KDE.
On some desktop environments, <ctrl><alt><del> will display the graphical logoff screen.
On some desktop environments, <ctrl><alt><end> will offer to reboot the system.
On some desktop environments, <ctrl><alt><backspace> will kill your current graphical session forcefully thus returning you to the logon screen. (Handy if the GUI has locked up)
On some desktop environments, these key combination will be enabled by default. On other desktop environments, you will have to enable them yourself.

It is worth to have a look at System Settings - Keyboard - Keyboard shortcuts.
(This is one of the things where the default configuration really should be the same across different desktop environments. The emergency button should always be red and enabled by default.)

5) I had trouble installing Wine properly and now it won't uninstall properly either. The progress bar gets stuck at 24%. Any ideas on this?

This definitely is not a simple question, but a troubleshooting request.
This "question" deserves its own dedicated thread.
You will have to provide a few more relevant details than you had done in your 1-liner.